Anti-competition commercials may be entertaining and effective at times, but HTC came up with a much smarter, cheaper way to advertise its products while mocking eternal rival Samsung, offering the disgruntled owner of a destroyed Galaxy S4 a complimentary One M8.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a page from a competitor’s playbook, as long as the act of stealing borrowing complies with patent laws and works towards a greater good. And clearly, HTC’s latest publicity stunt, though inspired by Nokia (and others before it), is underneath it all a textbook example of philanthropy and flawless customer support.

Support for other companies’ customers, that is, as HTC USA product manager Leigh Momii seized a fantastic opportunity to make a few headlines when bumping into the depressing tale of an unlucky Samsung Galaxy S4 proprietor on Reddit.

Forum user TweektheGeek, like a growing and concerning number of gadget owners, iPhones included, woke up one morning to find his once mighty device badly wounded after an inexplicable fire. The damage, allegedly not caused by any handling mishaps, wasn’t enough to put the GS4 to eternal sleep, but it did nearly destroy it.

Obviously, our story’s unfortunate hero reached out to Samsung’s customer support service immediately, and received assurances his emotional pain will be soothed in no time. Long story short, that never happened, and TweektheGeek was apparently stuck with a smoked, semi-functional smartphone and… an empty box, which Sammy promised to fill up with a brand new Galaxy S4.

But just as the tale was to reach a bleak ending, HTC entered the picture to save the day, offering the erstwhile S4 owner a free of charge, spanking new One M8. The only condition being, if Samsung ever sent the promised replacement S4, the fresh recruit of the HTC army would sell it and donate the proceeds to charity.

In the words of TweektheGeek, it really was an offer he couldn’t refuse, so he didn’t. HTC 1 – Samsung 0.